The lack of even implicit support from the Albanese government for the US strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities marks a further deterioration in the political relationship between Canberra and Washington.
The deafening silence will doubtless be noticed by the Trump administration but it will hardly surprise.
Australia’s foreign policy under the Albanese government appears to have collapsed to the point of serving little more than a domestic purpose.
It no longer has an impact or bearing beyond our own shores.
This is a fundamental shift that signals the creeping Australian retreat from historical positions.
It was revealing that as the bombs were falling, Defence Minister Richard Marles was conducting an interview on Sky News calling for diplomacy, de-escalation and dialogue with Iran.
The risks and consequences of this strike are unknown. But Australia’s position, with its ambitions as a middle power, needs to be clearer.
And when French President Emmanuel Macron becomes the North Star for Australia’s position, as Marles suggested, you know something’s gone awry.
As The Australian’s defence correspondent Ben Packham has previously pointed out, Australia’s influence in Washington is diminishing rapidly.
It has been suggested that the joint Australian and United States naval communication station, the northwest cape facility, could and would have likely been involved in communications involving tomahawk missile launches from US submarines during the operation.
Former Home Affairs secretary Mike Pezzullo said while the Australian government would be restricted in what it could say if Australia might have supported the US strikes, “it should in the interests of transparency inform the Australian people in general terms as a matter of longstanding policy”.
“Australia hosts a range of US intelligence, surveillance, and communications capabilities that might from time to time play a role in US force projection operations, without confirming or denying that such support was in fact provided in this instance,” he says.
“If it is the case that Australian infrastructure and facilities were used physically in direct support of this strike mission, the Australian people should be told, at least in general terms.”
The political dimension is different to operational elements that governments might rightly be reluctant to reveal specifically. But all the Albanese government could muster hours after the strike, was a short and vague statement sent from the Prime Minister’s office to the media.
The statement appeared to not even acknowledge that the strikes took place and was attributable to no one in particular.
“We have been clear that Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile program has been a threat to international peace and security,” it read.
“We note the US President’s statement that now is the time for peace.
“The security situation in the region is highly volatile.
“We continue to call for de-escalation, dialogue and diplomacy.”
The optics of this will hurt Anthony Albanese and risks Australia retreating further into irrelevance as its defence posture, by accident, appears to be now more instructive of the foreign policy position.
The lack of support from Canberra stands in stark contrast to the Coalition’s instinctive and unequivocal statement. And it stands in starker contrast to Labor’s historical approach to the alliance.
In 1991, Labor’s defence minister Robert Ray revealed to the Senate that the joint defence facility at Nurrungar in South Australia had been used for detecting the launch of Iraqi Scud missiles into Israel during the first Gulf War.
This sort of conviction has been replaced with a desperation for consensus.
It can only be assumed that Albanese is waiting to see what other leaders have to say first. Its fear would be that backing the US in this action would be to implicitly support Israel.
Acting opposition foreign affairs spokesman Andrew Hastie accused the government of being “ambiguous”. Others might describe it as limp.
“The Coalition stands with the United States of America today,” Liberal leader Sussan Ley said in a statement.
“We can never allow the Iranian regime the capacity to enact its objectives of the destruction of the United States and Israel.”
Former foreign affairs minister Alexander Downer said Australia’s response would be “defining” for the alliance. He said the strikes should be welcomed if for no other reason than Australia’s status as “a US ally since 1951 as well as a consistent supporter of nuclear non-proliferation”.
Trump’s conquest can be harbinger of stability, peace
Schools, shops and workplaces in Israel will again be closed on Monday as the nation braces for repercussions from the US strike on Iran’s nuclear and uranium enrichment facilities.
Journalists turn blind eye to Iran’s intent
Those tut-tutting on social media about Israel’s bombing of Iran’s nuclear facilities and rocket launchers seem to misunderstand the Iranian regime.